


Say What You Want

by gala_apples



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Everyone Is Poly Because Avengers, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-15
Updated: 2012-12-15
Packaged: 2017-11-21 04:40:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/593552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gala_apples/pseuds/gala_apples
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Toni gets back from Afghanistan she stops sleeping around and starts sleeping in very specific places. She's only got so long, and she has a lot to get accomplished.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Say What You Want

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Coconutice22](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coconutice22/gifts).



When Toni gets back from Afghanistan she stops sleeping around and starts sleeping in very specific places. There’s only so long the palladium will last. Toni has a list in her head of people she wants to affect before it conks out. Making _her_ people feel what she wants them to feel, what they deserve to feel is her new goal. And she knows herself well enough to know she’s better at sex than she is at displays of affection.

It’s not her only goal, of course. She needs to stop the arms deals, and make a duplicate suit, and maybe privitize world peace. But her priority is the enforced feelings through sex thing.

*

Anderson Cooper says no, but that’s to be expected. The look on his face is great though.

*

Rhodey says yes to friendly affectionate sex. Toni knows he’s straight, but would like to believe he would have said yes even if Toni had been born a guy. They’ve been friends forever, this is just the last step on that road.

*

There’s a difference between knowing intellectually you’re going to be poisoned to death and physically pulling a toxic piece of metal out of your chest. She doesn’t react as well as she thought she would. By the time she’s got control of herself again Vanko’s trying to make Rhodey kill her. After Rhodey’s suit reboots and Toni helps him stand up he apologises, and she kisses him. It’s been awhile since the last, and she’s pretty sure Rhodey thinks she just forgot about it. She makes sure he knows she didn’t. She makes sure he’s kissing her back. Not that she has a lot of time for fooling around, not with Hammer-roids about to land.

They fight the drones and conquer Vanko with the power of friendship and high-fives, and then she has to go save Pepper. Again Toni succumbs and lets her feelings take over. Pepper, too, kisses back. She asks if it’s weird, just to hear Pepper say it isn’t. Pepper reacts better to things if she thinks she’s in charge. Toni wants her to feel like that.

“I think it’s weird.” 

Toni didn’t see Rhodey land, but there’s no question that he’s here, snarking at them. Toni just rolls her eyes. “No you don’t.”

She can tell Rhodey’s about to open his mouth again and ruin this moment she’s built for herself and Pepper. Toni’s not about to let that happen. Toni tugs Pepper with her across the rooftop to Rhodey and keeps an arm around her waist as she kisses him. Toni can feel the exact moment Rhodey gives in and decides to allow himself a threesome relationship. That’s when Toni lets herself pull away and watch Pepper kiss Rhodey. It doesn’t matter how long it lasts, just that they’ll have this now. Just because her arc reactor is a better model doesn’t mean she’ll live forever. Better to focus on what she can have now.

*

For a split second it’s a difficult choice. In front of her is information on a dozen different things she didn’t know about before. Pepper’s already agreed on a flesh-date after whatever this is is all over, so she doesn’t have to worry about offending her by completely ignoring her in favour of new information. On the other hand, Toni really does want to celebrate the launch of Stark Tower. What she’s done, what they’ve done, is brilliant. And really, if Pepper trusts Coulson enough to use first names, she can trust him too.

She will work on this Avengers thing, she really will. But she might as well have fun first. She leaves the information hanging and jogs a few steps to the elevator before it can close. “And by cellist you mean Natasha and that brunet that likes arrows. Clint Barton, I believe.” 

Judging by the look Agent gives her, she’s shocked the third most unflappable man on the planet- Fury and the human JARVIS is modelled after being the second and first. It’s a good look on his normally placid face. Toni presses on. “Pepper likes you, Agent. We can both agree Natalie was hot, even if she broke cover by stabbing me in the neck. And we’re willing to spice it up with a stranger. So how about a fivesome before we save the world?”

“Barton’s...been compromised.”

“Well okay then,” Toni transitions smoothly. “After we save the world and uncompromise him.”

Coulson looks at her with something like relief in his eyes. Toni reaches out and takes her glass back. Under the silence of Coulson’s hope she finishes off her wine. It’s only a second or two, but she can feel the depth of the reaction so strongly it’s nearly a turn on. Pepper presses a button on the console and the doors of the elevator slide closed a moment later. She’ll probably try so-called damage control the whole way to the airport, but Toni cares far more about the fact that she made Agent Coulson _feel_.

Not to mention it’s interesting that he didn’t refuse the offer.

*

The first person on the team Toni knows she has to fuck is Bruce. He only Hulks out if his pulse hits 200, and whose pulse hits 200 during sex? No one’s. It’ll be fine, and after they both come -him firmly in a condom to avoid irradiated sperm- he’ll know he’s trusted. 

She does get him alone in her bedroom. That proximity is as far as it goes. As soon as she kisses Bruce he starts talking to her about Betty. How he does like her, she seems like a great person, and open relationships have always seemed like an anthropologically sound practice, but he’ll just end up hurting her like he hurt Betty. He says it all in such a despondent tone that as soon as Toni leaves the bedroom she pools her resources to find her. Well, resource. JARVIS is pretty amazing as a private investigator.

*

The day that Toni sees Pepper walking out of Thor and Jane’s room is the day she knows she made the right choice in getting them all to stay in the tower. Pepper’s fully dressed, and none of the articles of clothing are either Jane’s or Thor’s- she’d never be that unput together. But Toni knows what post-orgasm Pepper looks like, and that is most certainly post-orgasm Pepper. She doesn’t even think about not approaching. They end up making out in the hallway for nearly a half hour before Jane sticks her head out the door and tells them to come back in together.

*

Toni doesn’t approve of Betty. Access to more information has showed her Betty didn’t look. If Pepper was a rage monster who Toni’s dad was trying to kill, Toni would have still looked for her.

Her opinion ends up changing after Natasha and Betty have a heart to heart about trusting Bruce. Well, Betty calls it a heart to heart when Thor asks the next morning. 

When it starts Toni’s not doing anything as ridiculous as spying outside the door. It’s not the sixteenth century, she has the ability to watch a live security feed from across the tower. She’s been monitoring Betty’s room since she got here. It’s hard to trust a woman whose dad tried to kill Bruce. Toni knows Natasha feels the same; they’ve discussed how best to monitor Betty when she leaves. 

As Toni’s about to walk away from the feed and go back to engineering Natasha enters Bruce’s room. Toni thinks it’s just a routine patrol -Clint and Natasha both like to check things by hand and foot, even though she has a perfectly good JARVIS- until Natasha interrupts Bruce and Betty reading on opposite sides of the couch to inform Betty that she swears on her life if any information about the Avengers, Stark Tower, or SHIELD gets to General Ross she will pay. Evidently the phrase has some special meaning because Bruce speaks before Betty can, saying that the last time she said that things didn’t turn out too well.

At that point Toni is unfairly distracted- breaking news on CNN about Hammer escaping from prison. Toni only snaps back to the drama at hand when they start screaming at each other. In the minute she’s been scrolling for news the conversation has devolved into a screaming match. They’re both accusing each other of treating Bruce like shit, while Bruce sits playing the I Am Zen As Fuck card. Toni’s suddenly fascinated by Betty Ross. It takes balls to have that kind of a fight with an assassin, even if Natasha’s holding back infinitely by not taking it to a physical level. It takes love. Even if it’s just residual and Betty ends up going home a week from now, Toni’s glad Bruce is loved.

And then it does go to a physical level. Just not one she expected at all. Betty kisses Bruce like a claim of ownership, and when she’s done Natasha scoffs and gives Bruce her own kiss.   
As they go further Toni’s entire body tingles. She knows she’s made them feel this. She’s making them air these wounds. They’ll come out the other side of this experience better. She’s actually making a situation better, without throwing money, Pepper, or inventions at it. It’s a heady feeling.

*

Toni’s got a whole slew of feelings about Steve, and as such she doesn’t know what to make him feel. In the end Steve makes the move. 

She and Thor end up fighting this jacked up suicide cult. Not only do they want to die, they want to take everyone with them, so they’ve injected themselves with Marburg, or some other bleeding from the eyes disease. And that means it’s up to them. Human viruses, no matter how vile, don’t affect Thor. Her suit can be airtight, which makes it like a hazmat suit on steroids. There’s a chance that the Hulk could metaphorically spit the disease out, that the serum would prevent Steve from getting sick. None of them are willing to risk it.

When Toni and Thor finish getting tested they exit to find all four are waiting as closely to the decontamination room as they’re allowed. They’re all frantic in their own incredibly competent ways. Toni has a brief moment to regret the steady commentary about how gross all the cultists were; they probably didn’t need so many details. Not when they didn’t have any control over the situation. Only a brief moment though, because then Steve is bending down and kissing her. 

She breaks for breath and sees Natasha beside them kissing Clint. That, at least, makes sense. Everyone needs a kiss borne from relief now and then. Toni’s not sure how she missed the Bruce is bi development -she really thought he was the only exclusively heterosexual person within six degrees of separation of the Avengers- but there’s no question about it. He must be, his tongue wouldn’t be that far down Thor’s throat if he was straight.

How can Toni feel regretful about scaring Steve enough that he suddenly appreciates her existence? How can she feel guilty when her words brought more people worthy of affection together? Quick as mercury the regret turns to a feeling of power. Because the truth of it is that they all deserve to be happy, and they’ll all be happier if they’re together. And if she can make that happen, she damn well will.


End file.
